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The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index suggest that mobile technology and the desire simply to shop more online means even hotter days and more time outside didn’t stall the growth of e-commerce in April this year.

With the Royal Wedding, a bumper-pack of bank holidays and plenty of sunshine, there was plenty to keep UK shoppers happy and they responded by spending £5.2 billion online – up 19% on April 2010 and equivalent to £84  per person.

The hottest April since 1910 saw many parties and barbecues leading to alcohol sales seeing the most significant growth – 55% year-on-year. Clothes too with sales up 32% on 2010 and 8% on March 2011. Unsurprisingly, home and garden spends were also up 14% year-on-year and 11% month-on-month.

However, with the home-based fun came a decline in one sector. Travel saw an 8% drop from March and a lowly 1% increase in online sales compared to April last year.

Did you spend more online in April?

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Image: tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With Blackberry launching their Playbook tablet in the UK next month, the push for businesses to invest in tablets is  on.

Blackberry’s offering will no doubt prove popular with the business market where it has a strong following on the back of its smartphone range. The Playbook also appears to have everything a business-user may need including dual 1080p HD cameras, multi-media playback support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, plus a starting price tag under £350. Expect to see more and more tablets being unveiled in meetings in the months to come.

But are tablets just a fancy gadget for people just to show-off with or do they have a practical purpose in business?

To be honest, probably both. The kudos of having the latest technology is something the majority reading this blog will probably appreciate. Unwrapping your tablet in a meeting is certainly a way of getting noticed. Yet, from my own experience, that’s about where it all to frequently ends. It’s a bit like the majority of people who proudly show-off their latest smartphone. It’s looks over functionality that they are proud of, and many don’t even understand the full potential of the device in their hands.

However, I am definitely of the opinion that tablets are the future of computing and the future of business – we just need to learn to use them properly. With the right apps, correctly configured and organised your online life can become much slicker and more efficient and that includes your business too, especially for presentations. Whereas information may have been to hand before via a few clicks, now it literally can be at the push of a button (or screen). Some of the slickest presentations I have ever seen have been tablet based and there is something more personal about a hand-held device showing a slideshow or video than a laptop plugged into a projector. Tablets can make business easier and more enjoyable but are tablet makers geared enough to serve the business sector?

Apple sold nearly 15m iPads last year and with iPad2 still in short supply, the desire for a tablet continues to rise. Yet Apple have never really appealed to or been embraced by the business world – beyond the creative sector. This is where the Playbook may prove a stronger business proposition based on the Blackberry name and the fact that the Playbook is smaller and thus more portable than an iPad. Yet, there is more to come. Amazon are rumoured to be working on the launch of a tablet, hot on the heels of the fantastic success of their Kindle book reader. Plus Business IT specialists Cisco are also expected to enter the market with a business-focused tablet possibly named the Cius.

The wave of apps hitting the stores is also rapidly increasing and as more business-styled apps appear, the technology will evolve, so that tablets will be able to all but very few functions that laptops can. Remember your first laptop? Heavy, slow and not half the power of your desktop. The embryonic tablet market is similar. They start off already running though, fairly powerful and not too burdensome to log around. However, tablets will become more portable and lighter, the Apps that they run will become more advanced and soon we will wonder how we ever lived without them. Whereas now businesses invest heavily in bespoke CRM tools or industry specific software, in a year or so that investment will be in company or industry- specific apps.

Do you use a tablet for business? If not, what barriers are holding you back?

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Tumblr has been around since 2007 but in the last year or so has made a massive in-roads into the social-networking sphere as particularly the younger generation flock to take advantage of its micro blogging functions.

If you’ve not seen Tumblr before it’s kind of Twitter meets a blog. A short blog that can often consist of re-blogging what you find elsewhere. It’s the kind of stuff that many now use Facebook for, posting their favourite YouTube videos and the like, but Tumblr is more out there in the open internet, broadcasting to the world and creating a few personalities of its own.

Others have described it as text meets email which is another fair comment, but however you see it or others see it, nobody can deny that Tumblr is on the move up. Back in July 2009 it recorded monthly page views of 250 million. Earlier this month it recorded 250 million page views in one single day!

The success of the platform is its ease and personal nature. Few see it as a business tool, it is probably too informal for that, but we recall people saying the same about Facebook just a year or so ago. The popularity of Tumblr is rooted amongst creative types. It allows you to show flair and an insight into your personality that other networks perhaps have more constraints over.

Yet, the success of Tumblr means companies are at least taking an interest. At the moment this appears to be mainly publications and news sites like The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Rolling Stone magazine, where their profile sits more comfortably with the existing Tumblr user base, but expect more and more corporates to give it a try as they push for the social media lead.

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Once you’ve got the domain name you want, you probably won’t want to let it go. And holding on to it’s even more important if you’re running a website or business – or simply rely on it for your email.

Our domain name – 123-reg.co.uk – is 11 years old at the end of May. That’s nothing in the scheme of things, but it did get us thinking about the different ways you could use a domain name during your lifetime. Buy it at the start, and it’ll last till the end…

• At birth, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to buy a domain name for yourself. But assuming someone does manage to register it for you, they’ll be able to embarrass you by putting baby photos online, writing a blog of your progress – and setting up an email address for good wishes.
• By the time you get to your teens, you’ll probably enter a rebellious stage. A website is the perfect way to express yourself. Get creative, or set up a private messageboard to keep in touch with your mates, away from prying eyes. After all, don’t teenagers understand the internet better than most adults?
• At university, you’ll discover a whole range of new interests. Maybe you’ll be setting up a website for a club or society, or trying to impress potential employers with an online portfolio or project. You certainly won’t struggle for ways to use your domain name.
• In your 20s and 30s? Isn’t that marriage and kids time? Replace wedding invites with a website. Include your seating plan, gift list and show people who else is coming. Or document every moment of your pregnancy and birth. (Ok, not every moment.)
• Kids growing up, more time on your hands? Spare evenings are a great time to pursue a hobby or passion online. Maybe you could start a website – or even an online business. Plenty of ‘five to niners’ make money by running an online company outside of normal office hours.
• If you’ve hit retirement, you may be what they call a ‘silver surfer’. That’s surely another good excuse to spend more time online.

At 123-reg ,we do believe a domain name can last an entire lifetime. Like your mobile phone number, once you have one you like, you won’t want to change it. So don’t! Register a domain, and you’ll be able to keep it for as long as you need it.

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As a tech-savvy lot, many of you will already know what a QR code is or at least what it does, but as more and more advertisers turn to using it in print and even TV ads, we thought we’d try and come up with a short post of what, when, how and why QR codes are becoming so popular.

QR codes (short for Quick Response) first became popular in Japan, having been created within the Toyota group back in the mid 1990′s as a way of scanning and identifying contents and parts at high speed. Yet, it is only really the past 12 months that Uk marketeers really appear to have jumped onboard their usefulness.

A matrix barcode the uptake of smartphones mean more and more people have the ability to read them at home, in the office or on the move. A unique identifier they can be used to embed text or almost any data but their main take-up in recent months has been to pictorialise a URL.

The success of QR codes is thanks in part to their international standard (ISO 18004) and the fact that the division of Toyota, Denso-Wave, who invented them has chosen not to exercise the intellectual property rights it held although the term QR code remains a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated.

A standard QR code can contain up to 7089 characters, although not all QR readers can accept that much data and as ever in the modern world’s strive for smaller and better, the Micro QR code with its ability to hold 35 characters and takes up less space, is gaining in popularity.

The ‘geeky but cheeky’ look of a QR code also means it has become popular amongst graphic artists, being used on t-shirts, on canvas, even as personalised tattoos. In Japan they have even reportedly been used to mark graves of loved ones, to keep mourners in touch with each other.

QR Codes have the ability help track and direct your customers to a single location with simple imagery. It pulls upon the concept of gamification and is an unobtrusive way of getting an additional message into any print ad. So why then are more people not using them?

It appears it is simply a lack of understanding of what they are. Many see them, many possibly know what they do, but few seem to be taking the plunge to try them – although that is changing. With Smartphones expected to become the norm by the turn of the year, almost half of those carrying a mobile phone will be able to read QR codes. Expect to see a lot more splodges and blobs appearing before your eyes as the year wears on.

Do you scan and react to QR codes? Have you used them in your own marketing campaigns?

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The other day I was in a supermarket, helping out with the weekly shop and grabbing an hour or so away from my online world, when I spotted something I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised at, but did make me double-take.

Further down the tea and coffee aisle, a lady of more mature years was waving her hand at various items on the shelf. Each wave being met with a glance at her hand then a smile or a quizzical look. When I got closer I could see what she was up to. I don’t know for sure but I would estimate the lady was certainly into her late 60s if not beyond and held in her hand one of those Smartphones that they advertise with the slogan “if you’ve not got [one], you’ve not got [one]“. She was using a scanning tool and apparently price comparison software via the internet to see if the bargain the supermarket was suggesting was not to be missed, was actually that good. Proof that the internet and all the fancy gadgets it can now offer are useful to each and every one of us.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I tell the tale because today, as Spring Online week comes to a close, it is officially Silver Surfers’ Day 2011. You see “the net is not just for the young” as technology writer Bill Thompson once wrote and today is a celebration and promotion of the use of digital technologies by older people.

Launched back in 2002, the campaign seems to get more publicity and more successful every year. The idea is to get more older people – the silver surfers –  online, using the internet but it is also a celebration of those that are already on top of it.

Last year the event saw an estimated 32,000 people take part in 1,600 events as part of Silver Surfers Day 2010. This year 2,000 events will have taken place during the week with many today, so if you are interested in getting your gran, your aunt, your mum, or male relatives online, have a look here using the Find an event search to see if there are any events near you.

With the take-up of touchscreen tablets in the past year – I actually know more people over the age of 40 with iPads than under the age of 40 – the access to the internet for the non-net-savvy older generation has rapidly improved. Those who 5 years ago may have struggled to send an SMS text via a mobile phone, are very likely to now be using a smartphone by choice, sending emails and even logging into social networks. We’ve reported the increase in older users on Facebook and the like before, but the ability to connect with family and friends far and wide is enticing more and more of the Silver Surfer generation online.

123-reg can also help you connect. With our shared webhosting packages and 123-apps whatever your level of IT competency you can set-up in minutes your own blog to keep people updated of what you are doing, or a photo gallery to share those holiday snaps or family memories. For those more adventurous products like InstantSite and SiteFusion can help turn anybody into a web designer, perhaps to create a site for your local group or sports club.

To get you started we have even arranged a 10% discount off of our .com domains purchased via 123-reg today. Enter voucher code: SURFER when prompted during the checkout process. But remember it is only valid today (20th May 2011).

The internet really is great at breaking down barriers, whether that be distance, financial or something else and certainly on the internet, age is no barrier. So do a good deed for the day: Help one of your older friends or relatives to get using the internet. Free access can be obtained in most libraries and town halls across the country and for just a few hundred pounds a netbook can get anybody online quickly an easily – you may even have an old disused machine lying around at home or work that could help somebody get online.

Have you helped encourage somebody to become a silver surfer? Are you a silver surfer yourself? We’d love to hear your stories.

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Well The Apprentice has already set the Twittersphere alight, with the contestants seemingly chosen for their ‘character’ rather than their business credibility. With that comes the questions over the sanity of those who apply and take part. Yet, if a quirky state of mind is a requirement for selection on The BBC’s biggest reality show, what depths will be revealed by the newest reality show to hit Channel 5?

Yes, Channel 5 is set to become reality heaven for several weeks later this year for those so inclined. It will play host to the big brother of all reality contestant shows. In fact it will play host to Big Brother itself. Yes, the show that ended a run of ten years on Channel Four is to come back to our screens one down the channel list, with production giants Endemol still at the helm.

With a new show, comes new contestants and a new application procedure and this week saw the launch of a new site: bigbrotherauditions.com. Those up for the challenge (ridicule?) can apply to be on the show directly via the site or download and print forms to send later.

The bizarre thing is, that with the rise of social media even since the last series of Big Brother, those ‘characters’ likely to be ideal for the show are also likely to be heavily into social media with large Facebook and Twitter followings. So 1) will it still be possible for the producers to keep the identity of the contestants secret before they are officially announced and 2) will those selected be able to cope with the cold turkey of going without social media while they are inside the Big Brother house? 3) Will the evil Big Brother create a false online universe within the house, that mimics internet access under certain dictatorial regimes in far flung corners of the world?

We will have to wait and see, but certainly expect to see plenty of media bumph surrounding reality shows again this year and without a big sporting event this summer expect also reality related hastags to dominate the Twitter debates.

Have you ever applied to be on a reality show? We’d like to hear your experiences.

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The European Union’s amended Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive comes into force in just over a week on 26th May 2011. With it comes a much under-reported change in the way web administrators can use the information they collect about their visitors.

It what has been labelled ‘the cookie law’ the directive has yet to be be given a formal route into English law but still technically affects all those in the UK under European law. The key aspect is that collecting information via cookies should no longer be done covertly. Simply because a visitor’s browser allows cookies should not be taken to mean they agree to their information being collected.

As a result, The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a briefing note setting out guidelines on how not to fall foul of the directive.  Advice on how to lawfully collect and use cookie information is set out in the document, aimed at bridging the gap until the Government bring in formal legislation.

While the position is not perfect it would appear the caution suggested by the ICO briefing note is a sensible step to follow until a new statue clarifies the exact position.

Do you think the Directive goes too far? Do the ICOs suggestions play too much into the hands of the regulators?

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